Calories Burned Walking

An essential aspect of weight loss or fitness regime is burning calories in whatever way an individual finds appealing and as you can tell, this differs between people a great deal.

One thing however that a lot of people find alluring in an exercise regime is the ability to engage the activity with as little stress as possible. This is where walking comes in. Most able-bodied individuals can walk and best of all, it is free. No gym membership is required. When you realize that calories burned walking can add up easily, the benefits of this activity become overwhelming.

Research has proven beyond doubt that exercise is beneficial to our overall health and to a large extent this is related to one’s level of physical activity…walking being one type of physical activity that will do just that.

So long as you do not suffer from a medical condition that precludes you from any physical activity, then it’s just about possible that walking will be one activity that any other excuse you have for not participating will fall flat on the first hurdle.

Quite simply, walking as an exercise, is as easy as they come. I always advise to start on a small scale (if you are not one of the fit people around) and ramp it up as you get accustomed to it…

…and if you think you cannot burn calories walking, then think again, because you can.

So how many calories burned walking one mile?

This will vary between individuals because a lot of factors come into play. Your age, weight, fitness levels, the speed of your walk, the type of terrain you are walking on and of course the distance covered all contribute to amount of calories expended.

However you can calculate in general, calories burned walking 1 mile by using a simple formula.

Your weight (in pounds) X 0.53 will give you the amount of calories at a speed of 3 miles per hour.

So if you weigh 220 pounds, then at 3mph speed you will expend 0.53 X 220 = 117 Calories in one mile.

3mph is a pretty average speed and you will burn more calories walking, if you up your pace and if the terrain includes inclines.

To get the amount calories burned walking 5 miles at that same speed, take your weight (in pounds) and multiply it by that factor of 0.53 and multiply your answer by 5 to get the total for five miles.

So in that example, it will be 117 X 5 = 585 calories

Calories burned walking one hour

I will give you figures here relating again to walking at a moderate pace of 3mph on a level surface for some body weights.

Weight Energy Expended in 1 hour @ 3mph

120 lbs (54.5 kg) 180 Cal

140 lbs (63.6 kg) 210 Cal

160 lbs (72.7 kg) 239 Cal

180 lbs (81.8 kg) 269 Cal

200 lbs (90.9 kg) 299 Cal

220 lbs (100 kg) 329 Cal

240 lbs (109 kg) 359 Cal

260 lbs (118 kg) 389 Cal

So if you want to calculate the calories burned walking 30 minutes at that moderate pace, just divide that figure for your weight by half.

How about adding some resistance to our journey by going up an incline?

Here are some figures for calories burned walking uphill at a pace of 3.5mph.

Weight Energy Expended Uphill in 1 hour @ 3.5 mph

120 lbs (54.5 kg) 327 Cal

140 lbs (63.6 kg) 381 Cal

160 lbs (72.7 kg) 435 Cal

180 lbs (81.8 kg) 490 Cal

220 lbs (100 kg) 599 Cal

240 lbs (109 kg) 653 Cal

260 lbs (118 kg) 708 Cal

I suppose you can get some idea on how much energy you can burn walking upstairs from that table too roughly.

The tables above exemplifies the fact that simply improving on your pace and walking in terrains that have some incline to them will dramatically improve your calorie burn rate.

So how can we make walking a sort of permanent habit as opposed to being a fad, such that we can ramp up our calories burned walking?

Here are some tips:

Get a walking companion. It’s so nice when you do any form of exercise with someone who has similar objectives to yours, because you tend to draw inspiration from each other. This helps to keep motivation levels up.

Kit yourself up properly. You will need to wear the right walking shoes that are comfortablelike this pair - New Balance Men's MW645 Walking Shoe or this one Ryka Women's GCB Walking Shoe. A nice comfortable well designed walking gear is capable of adding a spring to your step. The same applies to your clothes – clothes you wear should be fit for purpose.

Choose a scenery that is alluring and attractive. It will enable you enjoy the moment making the whole experience fun for example along the river bank, in the park, in the woods familiar to you etc.

Incorporate walking into your life routine to further enhance your gains. I’m talking about little things like parking some distance away from the shop you intend to visit or coming off the bus one or two stops earlier or later than your actual bus stop.

Use the opportunity of charity walks to up the ante. As you know charity walks are usually long distances and it makes sense to participate to increase your calorie burn as an added bonus to the charity objective.

One last tip I will let out here if you really want to burn calories walking, is to get some sort of audio companion. An iPod (Apple iPod nano 16 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL )or MP3 player is very good for this purpose. You can either listen to music you love or download an audio book to listen to as you carry on with your fitness activity…and watch the time go by blissfully.

How much calories burned walking depends a lot on your commitment and devotion to this sporting activity that could best be described as laid-back but has huge pay-offs as a bonus.

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